The biggest holiday in Brazil finished at about noon on Ash Wednesday (finished is a relative word. Some people continued their celebrating). When did it begin, you might ask? Oh...roughly last Friday. Most business places are closed for the l-o-n-g weekend of 5 days so we usually try to make sure we have enough groceries to last that long.

But what exactly IS Carnival?? According to everyone's favorite encyclopedia,"Carnival is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent...(It) typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party." Ok, that is a super-simple and super-basic definition. And in some places that may suffice. However, in Brazil it does not! You can find a more detailed description of this country's Carnival by clicking here. It is quite involved, to say the least.

To most people who live in, I'll call it, a non-Carnival country or region, that word mainly conjures up visions of masks, costumes and confetti (think Mardi-Gras). But here it is much more than that-perhaps the same difference between American soccer and Brazilian soccer!

(RCC two blocks from our house)

Carnival is connected to the Catholic church. Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world so, of course, their Carnival is big. As you noticed in the definition above, it occurs just before the Lent season of 40 days. To put it simply, Carnival is the time when people indulge to an exaggerated degree those things that they plan to "give up" for 40 days. Without a doubt, they go a bit overboard and I am NOT talking about food. Drunkenness, scandalous dress and immorality of every description abounds, as was evidenced by the government giving away more than 68 million free condoms (one for almost every 3 people that live here).

To add to this, they end the celebration on Ash Wednesday when they crowd the Catholic churches to repent of all the sins which they committed during the previous days. For sure, all of those who pula Carnaval don't go and confess and repent. And of those who do go, most do it out of ritual and tradition, which leaves their hearts and lives the same as they were before.

Flaviane and Carol worked hard to go to camp!

Not all Brazilians celebrate Carnival. The Christians (believers in Jesus Christ) have a joy that transcends the shallow, empty, transient one of Carnival.Happily, many of our church young people have camps available to them and we were encouraged to see 7 go from our little Victory Baptist Church. They worked hard in the weeks beforehand, trying to earn enough money to be able to go...which they did! They returned with beaming faces, happy voices and encouraging testimonies of the blessings during the 4 days of camp.